View Breughel's Landscape with the Fall of Icarus silently. Access through Glogster and view linked video for up-close examination of painting's elements.

Discuss painting in small groups.

​When you first looked at the painting, what was the first thing you noticed? How long did it take you to notice Icarus's legs in the bottom right-hand corner?

How would you describe the tone of the painting? Give two examples from the scene that support your conclusion.

What viewpoint did Breughel give to the painting? By this, I mean, where does the artist have us "standing" as we look at the scene? What's interesting about this choice? Who are we actually supposed to be in this scene?

How do the artist's color and lighting choices impact the message the viewer takes away from the painting?

Although the death of Icarus is the critical piece of this narrative scene, this is not a painting about death. What is Breughel's message to the viewer?

​Auden opens the poem with an inversion. Instead of saying, "The old Masters were never wrong about the suffering," he says, "About suffering they were never wrong, the old Masters..." What is significant about this launch to the poem? How does the inversion change the line's impact?

This poem is free verse, meaning it does not use consistent meter patterns, rhyme, or any other noticeable formula. Auden does though occasionally rhyme some of his lines. Identify at least three of Auden's rhyming pairs of words and explain why you think he chose those specific lines.

In the last stanza, Auden specifically refers to the Breughel painting. He says that "everything turns away" from the disaster. List three people/things in the painting that have turned their backs on the drowning teenager.

What is the theme of the poem?

Do you think the people in the scene heard/noticed Icarus falling from the sky or do you think they were all so absorbed in their own busy lives that they didn't notice at all? Does one way or the other change Auden's theme?